A carnival singer who reinvented himself into a polished political outsider is poised to become Haiti's new president, according to several sources familiar with the results that are expected to be released later Monday.

The second day of the Western military campaign against Moammar Gadhafi saw an escalation of attacks, with bombing raids against ground forces loyal to the Libyan leader — and an escalation of questions on the strikes' objective and the extent of the U.S. role.

Moammar Gadhafi's warplanes bombed a military airport in Benghazi on Wednesday, the first assault on the eastern rebel stronghold since a revolt by inexperienced fighters with outdated weapons began one month ago to topple the Libyan dictator.

Dangerous levels of radiation escaped a quake-stricken nuclear power plant after one reactor's steel containment structure was apparently breached by an explosion, and a different reactor building in the same complex caught fire after another explosion, Japan's leaders told a frightened population. Authorities warned that people within 20 miles of the crippled reactors should stay indoors to avoid being sickened by radiation.

With a death toll expected to climb into the tens of thousands, more than a half-million people displaced and a nuclear crisis continuing to unfold, rescuers converged Monday on Japan's devastated earthquake zone while workers in relatively unaffected areas struggled to return to offices and factories.

The worst earthquake in generations struck off the northeast coast of Japan on Friday, setting off a devastating tsunami that swallowed swaths of coastal territory and fanned out across the Pacific Ocean, threatening everything in its path.

In a defiant speech broadcast early Wednesday, Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi derided opponents who have seized the eastern half of the country as "traitors" and blamed foreigners and al-Qaida for perpetrating the unrest roiling the North African state he has ruled for more than four decades.